You might find it hard going at first, but stick with it: there’s so much to be fascinated by in each club’s humble beginnings; of General Franco and the Catalan resistance; of Madrid’s mercurial Alfredo Di Stefano; of Barça’s brilliant László Kubala and his escape from Hungary dressed as a Russian soldier; of how each club swiped those last two players from under the others’ noses in similarly grubby circumstances. Finally, how about this description of a party for one of the players to show that some things have moved on.

A Life in the Day by Hunter Davies | Goodreads A Life in the Day by Hunter Davies | Goodreads

He is the author of numerous books, including The Glory Game and the only authorised biography of the Beatles. Pleased to find this at the library, as I greatly enjoyed the first part of his autobiography ‘The Co-OP’s got bananas.Dedicating a chapter per country, or former super-state in the case of former Yugoslav states, Behind the Curtain shows just how influential politics has been on football in Europe’s outposts. Hunter Davies’ childhood lived amongst the post-war dirt and grime of Carlisle was immediately hailed as a classic memoir from one of Britain’s foremost columnists of the past half century. Davies has also written a biography of the fell walker Alfred Wainwright, and many works about the topography and history of the Lake District.

The Glory Game by Hunter Davies | Goodreads

As a journalist, he has a column in The Sunday Times about money and in the New Statesman about football. It was funny to see the old timers in this book complaining about how pampered the players were - not even close to the standards of today. One of the appendices diagrams the scoring set pieces that the team used during the 1971-1972 season.left our protagonist at the cusp of working for one of the world’s greatest newspapers – The Sunday Times . The players in the 70's were much more accessible than today and it was cool to see how relaxed they were in giving Davies accounts of their personal lives.

The Glory Game: The New Edition of the British Football

Obviously from a different era, but nevertheless offering great insight into the inner life and dressing room of a great football club. Alan Mullery claims vehemently that there is no way that he would go into management after seeing Bill Nick on match-days. Hailed as probably the best book about soccer ever written, 'The Glory Game' gives a unique insight into the inner workings of a major-league soccer club.

He went on to successfully manage Wimbledon for seven years before short spells with Luton and Nottingham Forest. Inadvertently, a contemporary reading reveals the latent, and occasionally overt, sexist and racist attitudes at the times, while the writing has that clipped, slightly BBC tone. With the hard to please manager Bill Nicholson and his un-PC sergeant-major assistant Eddie Baily, the team are constantly reminded of the club’s glorious past (of which they were both part), with the response to their methods sometimes at odds with performances on the pitch. The writing is spot on and with a breadth of interest, the club is covered almost from top to bottom, with the player providing plenty of material for Davies to work with.